(a) Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to card reader, and more particularly to a simplified, highly efficient, and easy to operate mechanism for the structure of a removable card reader.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Existing card reader and memory card housing focus on features like miniaturizing and holding multiple cards but lack innovation and breakthrough in design. The only objective of these designs is for card insertion, and consequently no other structural considerations are taken. However, newer consumer electronics products are coming out almost daily such as desktop PC, digital camera, notebook, and PDA. Memory cards play a vital role in these 3C products, and more importantly, the grade of a memory card definitely differentiates the level of usefulness of these products. On the other hand, the consumers' criteria in selecting products are always thin, miniaturizing, light weight, easy to insert, and robust. Consequently, these features are also what every manufacturer is striving for.
A typical structure of a card reader designed with prior art is shown in FIG. 1.
The card reader includes an outside cover D1, a sliding housing D2, a card ejection button D3, which make up the whole body of the card reader. The sliding housing D2 comprises of a bottom catching seat D21 and a sliding seat D22; the bottom catching seat D21 is installed at the bottom of outside cover D1 and it has a sliding slot to provide a back and forth movement for the sliding seat D22 which has a bending extension. At the back of the sliding housing D2 there is a tension spring D23 at the center position providing the force for pushing back the sliding housing D2. On one side of the front panel of outside cover D1 there is a card ejection button D3. With a forward pressing force, the card ejection button D3 makes the tenon D31 go backward horizontally. As a result, the tenon D31 will break when the card reader's position is incorrect or after the tenon D31 itself has undergone wearing and tearing. These are the two major disadvantages of these insertion-type card readers. The disadvantages of prior art are what this invention will address as well. They can be listed as following.
First, both the sliding housing D2 and the card ejection button D3 take a lot of components. These components make no contribution to the structural soundness; they merely increase the final product's cost and are detrimental to its quality.
Secondly, the additional components also make the product longer to assemble and create a production bottleneck. Additional assembly steps also increase the chance of producing poor quality products.
Thirdly, the poor design of the card ejection button D3 in prior art causes the ejecting card to hit the operator's hand. The complex design of prior design also increases the number of failure during its life span.